A process is emergent to the extent that its consequences are unpredictable.
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...are interesting but unpredictable.
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In hindsight the consequences make sense.
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unanticipated instead of unpredictable
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predictable but unpredicted
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But what is emergent without humans observing it? (But does this question make sense?)
A process is emergent if you don't need to find an explanation external to the process.
An emergent process creates pattern.
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But what's "pattern"?
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Psttern is the presence of compressibility.
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...creates pattern from nonpattern.
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...increases compressibility.
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algorithmic complexity
Is there a criterion of emergence that goes beyond our human notions of predictability and interestingness?
The starting condition and the end state are not the same thing -- in emergent processes.
Still missing: levels of organization. Do our patterns necessarily move up a level? Are there levels?
Also potentially useful: information and entropy.
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Information doesn't account for levels.
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One way to include levels in information: "coarse-graining."
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Levels: observer-dependent?
Examples, or not:
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life
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GPS as invented by the army
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GPS as used by gamers
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Mathematica
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One-Click Shopping
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versatility can be built-in? "generativity"
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low energy-cost of creation
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airplanes are expensive to build
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and they have few uses, all predictable
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some are, some aren't
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but once it's written, it's not emergent
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consciousness
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NASCAR culture
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traffic patterns
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literature
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meaning
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security systems
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teaching
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learning
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religion
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periodic table
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mathematics
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the shape of a balloon that's filled with cookie dough
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butterfly stripes
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African history
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ant colony behavior
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high-dimensional geometry
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the UNIVERSE
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economics
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Houston, TX
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Columbia, MD
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social-insect path-finding
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evolution
not
